Experiences

Note

This design guide was created for Windows 7 and has not been updated for newer versions of Windows. Much of the guidance still applies in principle, but the presentation and examples do not reflect our current design guidance.

Experiences are the common experiences and use cases for all apps, like set up, first run, and printing. Learn about the best practices for creating these experiences and communicating your app brand.

In this section

Topic Description
Software Branding
Branding is the emotional positioning of a product as perceived by its customers. Successful branding requires skillful crafting of a product image, and is not achieved just through product logos and color schemes.
Setup
Users don't enjoy installing software, so modern setup experiences need to be simple, efficient, and problem-free.
First Experience
In the ideal first experience, users install your program and use it productively immediately, without answering a bunch of questions or learning a bunch of things.
Printing
Printing is the user experience on paper. It's easy to overlook, but it is an important part of the overall user experience.